Lost pearl

I think I used the analogy my ex used in reference to someone who was trying to handle too much chaos: it was like standing next to someone whose strand of pearls had just broken. I've felt very much that way lately, with precious things bouncing around and potentially out of sight. Not so precious--but rather ironic, given yesterday's post about perhaps skipping a meeting--on Thursday I missed a meeting simply because I utterly forgot it was happening. I'd been looking at my calendar all week, but somehow I managed not to see that meeting there, Thursday, 8:30 a.m. No doubt there's something Freudian about it (not a meeting I particularly wanted to go to and not at an hour that I particularly relish). But it's odd to me that I felt sick about having missed it. It's one thing to miss a meeting on purpose, but to miss it because it fell through the cracks, that bothered me.

I'm still in the process of thinking through what I can do to alleviate some of the pressure. I have an idea, but I'll blog about it tomorrow--or whenever. I do need to wind down for bed now, but just wanted to make note of that moment when something did indeed slip unnoticed, out of sight. I've dreaded it all semester, and now that it's happened? No harm, no foul, as they say in baseball. Oddly enough, the world did not come to an end, nor was I de-tenured, because I missed a meeting. Nice to be reminded of perspective from time to time.